By Scott Gillum
Estimated read time: 6 Minutes
You’re damned if you do, and damned if you don’t. This expression applies when trying to create and execute “personalized” campaigns.
As defined by Google’s Gemini, “personalized campaigns in B2B marketing means tailoring your marketing efforts including advertising, offers, and communications to specifically address the unique needs and interests of each individual B2B customer.”
If you go too deep into understanding prospects or customer’s needs and preferences, you can’t scale the campaign. If you go too shallow, then the message lacks relevance and connection to buyers. It’s a challenge we’ve faced working with clients for years.
We can delve deeply into understanding the preferences and motivations of buyers, creating truly personalized offers, only to be limited by our ability to do it at scale. That was, until we discovered the 65/75 rule.
At its core, the 65/75 rule exists because birds of a feather actually do flock together. People with similar personalities are drawn to work in certain industries, roles and organizations. Not only that, they also learn, shop and buy products and services in very similar ways.
After years of researching and profiling the personalities of tens of thousands of buyers, we have found that at least sixty-five percent of industries, companies and roles are comprised of two dominant personality types (using the DISC personality type indicator).
Learn more by viewing the Using AI Enabled Personality Based Marketing to Design ABM Programs webinar.
In some areas it was higher. For example, we found that fifty-three percent of the CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies have the same personality type. Sixty-five percent of the Chief Information and Security Officers in the financial services industry, also – have the same personality type.
In fact, the more advanced degrees (or professional certifications) a person has, the more likely it is to reflect their personality type. Said differently, your personality will often dictate the profession you pick or pursue. If you are not happy in your current position it may go deeper than just the job and/or manager. It may be in fact, at odds with your personality.
Discovering this insight led us to learn that personality types have preferences in how they learn and consume information. Influencers (the “I” in DISC) were fond of light, quick information like animated videos and infographics. Their motivations were often seeking new information to share with others…hence the term “Influencer.”
The same is true for how personality types consume certain content assets (case studies, white papers, video, etc.). Combining this insight with the insights on industries, companies and roles, we can now build out specific assets to attract the exact audiences we are targeting.
We are able to use the right “bait” based on the body of water and type of fish we want to catch.
Register for the Understanding Online and Offline Behaviors to Find Real Buyers and Influencers webinar.
Years ago, Pat Spenner, co-author of The Challenger Customer, and I tried to assess a way to target and attract “Mobilizers”, a type of buyers identified in the research for the book. These buyers played various roles within the buying group. There were two types that were of particular interest and value to sales and marketers. These individuals were more likely to either be motivated to start or lead a buying journey.
We knew their personality attributes but couldn’t figure out how to target and attract them. In a sense, we knew the fish we wanted to catch, but not the best lure to catch them. At the time, we were missing the data and technology to solve the mystery – a mystery that has existed for years.
Now, because of predictive and generative AI, we have the answers. Those “high value” mobilizers can be identified by their personality traits. Understanding their personalities then leads us to finding them in certain industries, companies and roles.
Knowing who they are gives us insight into how to speak to them personally, and do it at scale. AI tools can be trained to create content in their preferred language. Engagement data matched with personality type then guides us to their preferred sales and marketing assets (case studies, videos, etc).
For the Conscientious (the “C” in DISC who are prone to be “skeptics”), we use data and research backed content in an analytical tone. To play that out, to catch the fish (CISOs) in the body of water (Fin Serv industry) we’ve identified the bait (research and data backed content). It’s not 100% certain they will “bite”, but they are more likely to engage.
This brings up another interesting insight into the behaviors of personalities. For the skeptics I just mentioned, credibility is everything. Their top four information sources are people to people channels (peers, analysts, etc.). So, even if they don’t bite, you’re not losing credibility with them by giving them information they may find to be overly promotional or lacking substance.
Finally, this leads us to where they will show up in the buying process. The 65/75 rule continues to apply based on the industry. In professional services for example, sixty-five to seventy-five percent of audiences, early in the buying process, will be made up of two distinct personality types (the DI of DISC). The middle and end of the journey is the same story. The personality types change with the skeptics showing up late, for example, but the rule is the same.
It is the final piece that completes my fishing analogy. We know where the fish are most likely to be in the vast ocean of opportunity. All this to say, teaching a marketer to fish (using personality based marketing described above) can not only “scale,” but can also keep the salesforce fed for the year.
